Dark Victory
by 4thFromTheFurnace
Summary: When Brainiac 5 struggles with his ancestor's influence, Violet begins to feel smaller than she already is. Suddenly a power rises greater than Imperiex and is revealed to be a rather unexpected culprit. MAJOR SPOILER ALERT! -BrainyxViolet-
1. In Your Dreams

**Dark Victory**

**AN ANIMATED SERIES FIC**

**My three-day countdown to the season 2 finale of Legion of Superheroes!(In the Eastern US, that is) I'll try to post Chapter 2 tonight or tomorrow and the final third chapter tomorrow or early Saturday before Legion of Superheroes comes on. This is the story about how I think it the season should end, and I want to voice it before the actual ending comes on and probably ruins my entire plan. **

**Anywho, despite my fantasies, I do not own the Legion or the title of this fic...but that's obvious considering that this is FANfiction and not AUTHORfiction. You guys get the point. **

**MAJOR SPOILER ALERT! Plot during the last three episodes of the second season.**

**Each chapter will be about each of the last three episodes. Tootles!**

She couldn't help playing with the buttons. It was just too tempting, especially when she was bored and irritated. Twice he had said 'no', but that wasn't an answer that she was willing to except.

"Cos, why can't I-"

"No, Shrinking Violet. For the last time, you will NOT be going on Mission Dream." he cut her off.

She pouted, folding her arms and puffing out her bottom lip. What kind of mission name was 'Mission Dream' anyway? She could tell just by the name that this was Cosmic Boy's idea of a mission name. Even so, she still couldn't understand why everybody, or rather, everybody on Cosmic Boy's good side, was against her going on one stupid mission. It wasn't like she was hurting anything.

"Why not?" she asked shortly.

He didn't answer her, so she decided to bring up the Never-Talk-Abouts of the more proper legionnaires that did not seem to see her as anything more than another legionnaire that they knew nothing about and had no desire to meet.

"Is it because I'm small?"

"Of course not." his tone was tense, the tone that Lightning Lad referred to as the Cos Hit-the-nail-on-the-head(using Superman's 21st century figures of speech)-but-I-don't-want-to-admit-it tone.

Violet swiveled her chair around, trying to act like she didn't mind being banned from a mission. The part of her mind that she hated started to nag her about how Dream Girl got to go on this mission while she was left behind. Finally, she sighed and rose from the chair. As she headed for the door, Cosmic Boy's stern voice interrupted her from his place at the controls, "You will stay inside the ship at all times. If any of us catch you gone, it will be put on your permanent record."

She gave a slight sigh, "I'm going to my quarters, Cos, don't worry."

Good heavens, that man gets so grouchy when there are things out there bent on domination of the universe. Vi didn't feel much like herself right now either. All she could think about was how all her friends were out there fighting for the galaxy and risking their lives while she sat on her backside until they needed her. She had never been the most popular of legionnaires, what with her unusual and mostly useless 'talent' and her overall quirkiness, but she never cared.

Violet chuckled to herself, her classic snort unable to be hidden. She had earned the smartest person in the Legion's respect and friendship, and that was good enough for her. Speaking of which, that was one of the biggest reasons she wanted to go on this mission. Not just because she wanted to go on a mission with a friend, although she did like it better that way, but she knew that her buddy wasn't having the best time. He tried to hide it, but she wasn't the kind to be easily fooled.

She knew for a fact that something was bothering her Coluan friend, even if he wouldn't tell her what it was. As she walked down the hall on her way to her quarters, she couldn't help but stare out the large window down the entire hall that looked out on the galaxy.

"Hey, Vi!"

Shrinking Violet turned around to see Chameleon Boy jogging up behind her with a slightly worried expression on his face. She gave him her typical big smile, "Hey, Cam, what's goin' on?"

He folded his arms behind his head and glared out the window with a strangely familiar pout on his face, "I'm just bummed 'cuz I gotta stick around this old place while our pals are out whacking on Imperiex."

Violet nodded, understanding precisely what Cam was feeling, but she shrugged anyway.

"Well, they must have a good reason for what they're doing, so we'll just have to trust them." she said, mostly to convince herself of it.

She couldn't remember much of anything that happened after that, she found herself zoning out while sitting on her bed in her quarters. Soon, everything would be back to normal. They would all be going out on missions to put the bad guys behind bars and all her friends would be feeling perfectly fine again. It would be only a little longer. She was sure of it.

--

Sometimes those beeping noises just aggravated him to no end. It was like pulsations in his mind, throbs through the endless programming and information streaming through his skull. Right now, he tried to ignore it, despite the inclination he had to walk away to the confines of his quarters.

He knew that Cosmic Boy and the others probably didn't tell Violet, Cam, or Karate Kid about their brief return to the ship, and Saturn Girl probably knew anyway. Phantom Girl probably wouldn't care one way or another, as long as Timber Wolf came back in one piece and still in his right mind. She was off somewhere doing some kind of United Planets business with her mother. Nobody really knew where Bouncing Boy was, or Triplicate--ahem, Duo Damsel for that matter. He didn't know where Superman or Kell-El were either. Here he was, setting up the Dream Recording for Dream Girl.

If he was really up-front honest with himself, he hated the change the Legion was going through. The good old days were all but history. Everybody was drifting apart and it seemed like there was no longer a team, just legionnaires.

Still, people treated him as they always did. They were all cordial and friendly, especially when they needed information, but he knew that even though it had been two whole years and he had grown significantly, they still found him to be boring.

Just earlier that day when they were going over Dream Girl's last dream and talking about strategies, Star Boy and Timber Wolf had been flicking that folded triangular piece of paper to each other, probably some sort of game from the 21st century that Superman taught them.

To be honest, he was disappointed and just a little hurt that after all the Legion had been through, he was still as boring as ever. All the information he felt was crucial, no one else saw as anything more than trivial. Then, when he withheld information, people would get aggravated at them for not telling them everything, even Superman. It was like no matter what he did, nothing he knew was worth anything. If he told them what he knew, they'd get bored. If he didn't, they'd all get angry with him for not telling them.

Well, except one. This had been one of the only people ever to prove him wrong. She'd listen to all the scientific and mechanical mumbo jumbo he had to say and then she'd show him that she already knew everything about it. The only person he ever met that could finish his sentences.

Whoa, what was he saying? All this distraction wasn't healthy at all, especially while trying to prepare Dream Girl's recording table. All this illogicality wasn't helping anything.

When Dream Girl came in, he didn't say anything. She glanced at him, then at the capsule-like vertical table. He finished setting up the panel and waited for her to step inside. With the click of a few buttons the table tilted back until it was completely horizontal. After making a few final adjustments, he left the chamber. He really had to get some rest himself, before more than one distraction would keep him awake all night, and those unfinished inventions on his work table weren't helping anything.

--

Chameleon Boy gave a playfully aggravated growl. Why were they taking so long? They were supposed to be back by now. Cosmic Boy said that as soon as they return, there would be a big meeting about what to do about the situation with the growing threat of Imperiex. Now he was pacing back and forth across the room, Saturn Girl was leaning against a nearby wall, and Phantom Girl was pouting by the doorway, looking as if she was as fed up with waiting as Cam was; and probably thinking about how much of a waste of time this was.

Cam hadn't heard so much as a word about the mission. The Legion was using his dad's ship, the least they could do is tell him what was going on. Suddenly, he heard the ship dock doors open behind him. Phantom Girl jumped up and trotted over, followed by a calmer Saturn Girl. Others that Cam didn't know the names of popped out of the nooks and crannies to welcome the crew back and make sure that everyone was alive and accounted for.

It wasn't long before Cam jogged over as well, although it didn't last too long due to his unimpressive stature. He would have to either keep jumping or transform in order to see his friends over the gathering crowd.

He wasn't entirely sure why everyone was crowding around like this. It wasn't as if they had defeated Imperiex. They hadn't even GOTTEN to the meeting yet. All he knew is that transforming inside the ship was a little uncomfortable and shoving through a crowd of power-wielding legionnaires was even more uncomfortable. As soon as the people went away, he would have time to catch up with his friends.

Brainiac 5 slowly glanced around. None of the legionnaires that came over were coming to see what news they had received. None even seemed inclined to approach him. He couldn't care less about them though. There were a couple certain people he wanted to see come up and greet him with at least a wave and a smile, but he didn't see either of them.

He shrugged. He had to get to his lab and work on some of his inventions anyway. As he took one last glance at the crowd, his memory sparked about the meeting they were supposed to have to discuss the plan of defeating Imperiex. He shook his head. Not like they would really notice if he wasn't there just this once. He really needed to try to take his mind off this whole mess.

With that, he headed down the hall to his lab.

--

"Brainy?"

He was so involved with his current invention that he barely heard the knock. When the voice behind his door inquired for entry, he groaned slightly, his wiring tools still in hand, "Come in."

The figure meekly stepped through the door with a familiar little hop. He could feel the shadow hanging over his shoulder in a matter of seconds.

"You missed the meeting."

Brainiac 5 didn't answer. The guest stooped down beside him to watch him work.

"Sorry, I wasn't-"

"It wasn't your responsibility. It's of no consequence." he interrupted.

Shrinking Violet pouted, "It's not my responsibility as a legionnaire." her expression softened, "But it is my responsibility as your friend."

After a few moments of silence, she sighed, "Brainy? Are you alright?"

He calmly answered, "Everything's in proper order. Nothing is out of place."

"I'm talking about you, Brainy, not your circuitry. Is it...about that-"

His tools dropped from his hands and his head jerked up to give her an unusually cruel glare, "I said nothing's wrong. Why do always think that you have to try to read into things? Do you think you know everything? Do you think you can read minds or tell futures? Who do you think you are? Do you think you're God? Why do you have to waltz in here and bother me all the time? What's the matter with you?" he snapped, his remark laced with sour sarcasm and merciless malice.

Violet could only stand there for a moment, his words taking what seemed like forever to register in her mind. She could feel her eyes starting to burn and her nose getting all tingly. Her shaky voice came weakly as she struggled not to let her voice give out.

"Brainy, I--"

"Shouldn't you be in some kind of frivolous circus freak show? You're nothing but a nuisance here."

Again, completely flabbergasted, Violet couldn't think. It felt like her brain had disintegrated. The only thing she could think about is, well, there were thousands of moments and memories and hopes that flashed through her mind, but she was completely helpless to grasp any of them, except one impulse. Run.

But her heart overwhelmed her impulse. She managed to whisper, "Well, I'll be around if you need me, Brainy, and I hope you will." her voice broke into a slight squeak at the last part.

With that, she somehow managed to calmly and silently walk out of his lab, the doors sliding closed behind her.

It took a few moments to realize what had happened.

He let his head fall heavily to the table with a thud, "What have I done? Vi...I'm so sorry."

The look on her face when he said those things. Those awful, horrible things that he just lashed out as if it was a nasty aftertaste. She was absolutely shocked. At first she smiled as if she thought he was kidding, then her deep violet eyes went wide and her face froze, completely mortified. He could tell just by the dumfounded look on her face that he had hurt her. He had absolutely torn her apart.

His hands rose to claw through his hair with metallic fingers. He felt like screaming. He couldn't control what he was saying anymore. He was losing control. And it was all HIS fault. That cursed part of him that had destroyed Krypton. The part of him that was causing him to go out of his mind. At that moment, so many things were rushing through his mind all at once. He hated himself for what he was doing to his friends. He hated that part of him that was making him go insane. He hated the fact that he knew he couldn't tell anyone about it. He hated the fact that no one could help him. He hated even more that he couldn't help himself. He hated Brainiac.

**Next chapter: Dark Victory Part 1**

**A more in-depth look at what happened during Dark Victory Part 1.**

**Oi, my brain is so fried I'm not thinking straight. If you guys notice any other stupid stuff I missed/forgot/messed up, do tell me. Most likely I was too frazzled to know what I was thinking. Tootles 'til tomorrow! God bless you guys!**


	2. Dark Victory Part 1

**Chapter 3 should be up later this morning, everybody! It's gonna be a long one, I'll tell ya that. This one was really long because I tried to incorporate as much of Dark Victory Part 1 as I could, hope it's all right, I'm exhausted and going to bed, night all!**

She growled indignantly into her pillow, her voice muffled by the fabric, "Violet, you're so stupid!"

One of her only friends was going through something horrible and she couldn't do anything. He was struggling against his ancient evil ancestor and she couldn't do anything about it. He was hurting inside and all she did was run away and hide in her own lonely corridors. She could remember it like it was yesterday. _He was staring at his reflection in the glass of the bottle of Kandor. She was standing behind him, feeling a little self-conscious about the little shrinking malfunction, causing her to be at least a few feet taller than her teammates._

_He was worried about his connection to his ancestor, Brainiac 1.0, who destroyed Krypton._

_"But you're nothing like him." she had tried to reassure him._

_"But what if I am like him?"_

_She laid her hand on his shoulder and told him that whatever happened, if he faced his fears and struggles, he could only come out stronger._

She only hoped she had been right. What he said kept ringing in her head.

_"You know what? I think you're right."_

She longed for that moment again. The time he smiled; his face, his eyes, his words sincere. Nothing could take away that moment from her. For once she felt like she was needed, respected, and wanted. To be honest, she really didn't care if they liked her or not, but it was nice to feel like what she did was worthwhile.

She had to find some way to help her friend, and that's what she was going to do. As she slowly sat up on her bed, she began to contemplate her plan of action. Deep inside, however, she didn't want to admit how much his words hurt her.

--

He gasped, his breath hitched in his throat as his eyes shot open.

"I can't escape my destiny, can I?" His voice rang in his quarters. Once again, his much-needed rest was plagued with his ancestor playing games with his mind, and it was rolling over and over inside his head.

_"Check." he moved the white chess piece across the board._

_"By now you must know that you cannot keep me at bay. Why would you want to? I, after all, am such an intricate part of who you are." His adversary calmly stated in his monotone voice as he made his move._

_"You are merely the residual programming of my ancient and evil ancestor, nothing more."_

_Brainiac 5 hated to think that the original Brainiac had anything to do with who he was. He was different. He wasn't Brainiac. Just as Vi had said._

_"Then why, Brainiac 5, are you so afraid that you won't win this contest between us?"_

_Brainy's anger burned up inside him like a fire. He would not lose to this parasite and he would come out of this mess stronger than he was before. The fire burned through his veins. He threw his hands up, tossing the chessboard in the air with a violent jerk._

_His body quickly transformed to combat his foe in a different manner. Suddenly, huge red Brainiac statues rose up from the ground with a loud rumble. Brainy fired, distraught that his ancestor would not back down, "I've had enough of these games. I want you out of my head NOW!"_

_It seemed as if every time he fired, all the imposing statues did was rebuild themselves, which made it increasingly difficult to distinguish which was his real adversary. As one of the statues rebuilt itself, Brainy's heart lurched in shock and aggravation when the statue's head transformed into his own features, with the voice of his ancestor._

_"You could be so much more if you just embrace our legacy. Embrace the untapped potential within you. Embrace ME."_

_The young Coluan began to think of the Legion. His friends. The people he cared about more than anything in the world. His heart calmed, "I'm not like you, Brainiac. I don't share your obsession to control humanity. I only want to understand it, be a part of it. I reject everything you stand for!"_

_His fire renewed, he fired once again at the statue, shattering it and the entire scenery into a black void, showing the face of Imperiex._

_This time, however, Imperiex had the last laugh, "Remember all those files I downloaded from Computo? They revealed a back door into your programming."_

_"Then YOU'RE the one who awakened the Brainiac programming. YOU'RE the reason I've been slowly going insane!" Brainiac 5's hands went to his head, that throbbing pain beginning to return to his mind._

_"I've only aided an evolution you were already destined for."_

_"Why?!"_

_"Because I've seen what you've become, and I know, that together, we could bring forth a new world order."_

_"The only thing I want to bring forth is an end to you!"_

_"You can't escape your destiny." Imperiex's voice rang through his head like the horrifying toll of the funeral bells._

Feeling weary, downtrodden, and quite angry with himself, he hung his head and closed his eyes. How stupid was he to integrate any connection to his programming inside Computo? That had to be one of the most foolish things he'd done in a long time, and now he was paying for it.

It seemed like he had been fighting it for so long, it wracked his brain like a bad headache. Every time he fought it, the more exhausted he became, mentally and emotionally, and with every battle he felt like there was going to be no end to the struggle for his mind. It felt as if, with every battle, a little more of him was worn away. Every time he grew weaker from fighting, the sordid programming of Brainiac 1.0 grew stronger.

It came to the point where Brainiac 5 was beginning to feel threatened. All the what-ifs were shooting through his head. He was helpless to stop them, except for putting on that same mask he always wore, not letting on to the pain and struggle he was feeling.

When he talked to Shrinking Violet, that mask slipped off, and the barrier he had put up between the virus-like machinery he was plagued with and his friends had been torn down. He really didn't want to admit it, but logic and reasonable thinking told him that it was indeed true. The mask slipped off, and the barriers came down, just like they always do around Violet. Somehow she always seemed to unravel the wall he had worked so hard to build between his emotions and everything to do with the Legion.

He wanted to apologize, but he didn't want to face her and, most of all, he didn't want her or Superman or anybody else to see him like this.

Shaking his head violently, he decided to snap out of it and try somehow to get some actual sleep. Maybe by some kind of miracle Brainiac wouldn't bother him this time.

--

"This training session will familiarize you with the more common Dominator attack patterns. Questions? No? Then let's begin. Computo, Level 1." Composed and level-headed, Brainiac 5 started up the simulation.

As the simulated Dominators appeared, Lightning Lad gave his classic smirk, "Okay, guys, let's kick some simulated butt."

Brainy watched from the other side of the glass. His friends were doing well, as usual. Everything was going as planned and the echoing ache in his head had subsided.

"Control has always come naturally to you, hasn't it?" that all-too familiar menacing voice cooed.

"What are you doing here?!"

Flabbergasted, shocked, hurt, and angry, Brainy turned to see his ancestor standing, or rather, floating in front of him.

"I'm merely a mental projection. One only you can see. But I assure you that makes me no less real." the ancient Coluan explained.

"This means you're getting stronger, doesn't it?" the blond-haired android sighed.

From inside the Sim Chamber, Timber Wolf yawned and looked at Superman, unimpressed and pretty bored, "Come on, Supes, I was hopin' to break a sweat."

In agreement, Superman yelled up to the Sim Chamber Control window, "Hey, Brainy! I think we're warmed up! Let's up the intensity a bit."

Jolted back into reality, Brainy glanced down at his friends, trying to remain sensible and rational, though his distraction was given away by the absent tone in his voice, "Uh, yes. Computo, Level 2."

When the next wave of goons appeared, Chameleon Boy nearly laughed, "Now this is more like it."

Before the final enemies were defeated, the scenery changed suddenly. There were more of them, and they were much bigger. As far as Chameleon Boy knew, this wasn't part of the plan.

"A little warning would be nice!" he heard Kell-El growl.

"What? Can't handle the heat, Kell?" Lightning Lad's sportive cockiness could be heard from a mile away.

Cam had to admit, it was pretty fun beating up on robots in a jungle where a creature such as a giant ape would be perfectly at home. That is, until one of those robots blasts the ground out from underfoot. For a few moments all he felt was spinning and flying through the air, then the feeling was clearer. Falling. It was only a matter of time before he hit the ground.

Thud.

His landing stirred a cloud of grey dust is his body rolled across the ground. Instinctively he decided it would be better to roll across the ground as himself and not as a giant ape. As soon as he changed back, he felt his body rolling and skidding over the ground, the dirt and pebbles burning into the scrapes on his body.

"Oh, yeah. That's gonna leave a mark."

His ears felt clogged, but he could still hear Superman call to the Control window, "All right, Brainy, pause the sim. We have a man down!"

Cam began to feel himself getting dizzy as another wave of robots appeared. His head began to spin and his eyes felt heavy. His sight began to turn dark, sickly purple as he tried to stay conscious.

"I said, END the simulation!" Superman yelled.

"Warning. Safeguards have been disabled. Simulation reaching dangerous levels." To Cam, Computo's voice sounded surprisingly close to someone telling him that he was about to die.

"So, would you consider THIS strange behavior?" Kell-El snapped.

Superman glanced up at the window as Brainiac 5 managed the controls with a bizarre look on his face. Without thinking, Superman plunged through the window, glass shattering all over the room

"What's going on, Brainy? Snap out of it!" he shook his friend's shoulders lightly.

Brainiac 5's peculiar expression was replaced with one that was traumatized, appalled, and horrified at what he'd just done. It took a few seconds for his mind to clear and stumble over his words, "Ahh...Computo, end simulation."

His heart felt like lead as he stood to see his friends groaning in pain, "I'm sorry, I don't know what got into me."

With that, he couldn't bare to stay any longer.

--

There was no way Violet could stay in her room any longer, she had to go find him and find some way to help him. As she walked down the hall towards her friend's quarters, she caught sight of Superman standing and Brainiac 5's door. Quickly she ducked behind a doorway before the Man of Steel could see her.

It took only a few minutes for her to begin asking herself why on Earth she was hiding. It wasn't like Superman didn't know she was there anyway, unless he really wasn't paying attention. There was no reason to hide anyway. They were both there to see if their friend was all right. Still, she didn't move from her hiding spot.

"Brainy? You okay?" Superman asked.

"Go away."

He really didn't feel like talking to Superman right now, but the big lug just walked right in anyway.

As he walked into Brainy's quarters, Violet walked out from her hiding place and slid into a sitting position at her green-skinned friend's door, hoping to get some kind of idea bout how to help him without making it worse. As she sat there, she could hear every word perfectly. To be honest, she felt like she shouldn't be there. She was eavesdropping on two of her friends and that definitely wasn't cool. She probably would make a good ninja though, if she can slink around as well as she could hook up wires and nerves and dismantle a giant energy cannon, that is.

"I know something's going on inside that head of yours, but I can't help unless you let me in."

"Let you in? Sorry, but it's already pretty crowded in here." Brainy tried his best to ignore the pulsing pain in his skull.

"The original Brainiac? Is he behind what happened in the Sim Chamber?"

The young Coluan sighed. Now that Superman knew, there was no use trying to keep it a secret anymore, "Over the last few weeks, that part of my programming has become a stronger influence. I've tried to resist."

As he paused, his head felt like someone had drivin a spearhead through it, then he felt himself losing control, "But what if I'm wrong to be resisting? What if the original Brainiac is only trying to make things better? You know, help me bring order to your flawed chaotic human world."

"Brainy, listen to yourself."

His mind jerked back to normal, but he couldn't shake how helpless and broken he felt, "What's happening to me?"

"Don't worry, we'll help you get through this."

"You know that means everything to me, but...I need to ask an important favor."

Brainiac 5 wanted help. He wanted to put this whole thing behind him more than anything. He wanted everything to be normal again. But Brainiac 1.0 was right. He WAS afraid.

"Of course, anything."

"I need you to promise that if I am overwhelmed by this...this darkness, you won't let our friendship keep you from doing what has to be done."

He was afraid...

"Come on, Brainy, don't talk like that."

"Promise me! I don't want to become some terrible thing..."

He was afraid of what would happen to him. He was afraid for his friends because he didn't know how much longer he could hold out. He was afraid that he would never see them again with his own eyes. He was afraid of the horrible things that would happen if he gave in. He was afraid of hurting the people he cared about the most. He was afraid of losing control. He was afraid of being helpless...

"All right, I promise, but it won't ever get that far."

Violet really didn't feel like much of a ninja anymore. She felt like something small, insignificant, and of no help to anyone. She had no idea what she could do to help Brainiac 5. Sure, she could try cheering him up, what, with a joke and a few good laughs (each accompanied with a snort). But she didn't think that something like that would work on someone who was fighting for who they were. Though, it couldn't hurt to try.

An earthquake quickly initiated Superman's instincts and caused Violet to stand up quickly and jog down the hall, both afraid of being caught eavesdropping and afraid of what punishment she'd get for being caught eavesdropping. She didn't get to go on too many missions as it was, so black marks on her record would not be a good thing. She promised herself that as soon as this blew over, she HAD to go cheer up her friend.

"We're under attack." Superman noted.

Brainy watched the Dominators firing at the ship on the monitor in his quarters for only a little while before he couldn't take it anymore. As he began to walk towards the door, Superman stopped him.

"You're in no condition to fight."

"I can't just sit here while my friends need my help. I'm coming with you."

His heart ached for his friends. Even if they thought he was boring. Even if they didn't need him. Even if they all hated him beyond imagination, they were his friends, his family, and he couldn't stand by and watch while they risked their lives.

"I'm not asking you to stay, Brainiac, I'm telling you to." Superman stated firmly, leaving Brainiac's quarters, the door closing behind him.

"Computo, activate lock-down override. Confine Brainiac 5 to quarters." he instructed the computer.

Brainiac 5 really hated to be left out when his friends did need him. Watching the battle on the monitor was agonizing. His friends were all getting hurt out there and there was nothing he could do. The only thing he could do was wait and watch as the Dominators dominated the Legion.

"You can bring order to this chaos, all you have to do is open yourself fully to the power that lies within you." His ancestor's mechanical voice suggested, the ancient evil's features materializing on the monitor.

"And in the process open myself further to your evil influence." the blond sneered.

"The Legion will perish if you do not act."

Brainiac 5 didn't answer as he watched the screen. His friends would be gone. His family would be gone. His home would be gone. Everything that he had come to know and love would be gone. No more Lightning Lad complaining about Brainy's bad attempted jokes, no more Saturn Girl to keep Lightning Lad's crazy ideas to a minimum, no more Cosmic Boy to push everybody around, no more Chameleon Boy to lighten the mood with his silly sarcasm, no more Bouncing Boy to encourage everyone when they're down, no more Timber Wolf, no more Duo Damsel, no more Phantom Girl, no more anyone. No more Superman to keep everyone going strong, and no more Shrinking Violet to listen and actually care. No more charming snort to fill the ship with laughter. No more times of stress and trial, no more times to work and bond as a team, no more times of growing stronger. No more friends, and no more family. Nothing. Left.

--

"What did you do to them?" Superman demanded, glancing around at the corpses of dysfunctional machines that were the product of Brainiac 5's "upgraded" powers.

"I have shut down the Dominators." he answered simply.

"Shut down? You mean..." Chameleon Boy gulped.

"Shut down. In the same way a computer is turned off. Once they have been delivered to the authorities, I will reboot them." Brainiac 5 explained.

"Seems kinda cold for you, Brainy." Kell-El hissed.

"I saw an opportunity to restore order. I thought you would be grateful." the android responded, his tone slightly offended.

"Brainy, you don't even sound like yourself anymore." Superman took hold of the robot's arm. Brainiac 5 downsized into his regular humanoid form to put his friends at ease.

"It's just me, Superman. Really, I'm feeling much better. There's nothing to worry about." with a smile, he flew back to the ship.

"Maybe we should keep a closer eye on him, just in case." Superman commented when a certain android was out of range of hearing.

--

"You can come out, fellas. I know you're there. I designed those cloaking belts myself." Brainy sighed. Lightning Lad and Chameleon Boy turned off their belts, making them once again visible to the naked eye.

"We'd so make terrible ninjas." Cam remarked, a little disappointed.

"Instead of baby-sitting me, you two should be getting your rest before the big attack begins." the object of their surveillance tapped his forefingers together, then folded his arms, his expression skeptical.

"Sorry, Brainy. Superman just thought it was a good idea, you know, as a...precaution." Lightning Lad scratched the back of his head.

"I understand fully. With the way I've been behaving it seemed like the logical thing to do."

--

"Shrinking Violet, where're you headed?" Superman inquired, passing Violet in the hall. When she didn't answer, he narrowed his eyes at her, "Are you going to see Brainy?"

Without even waiting for an answer, his eyes narrowed further and he stooped down to look at her, "Violet, don't make Cos confine you to your quarters too. No one can see Brainy right now, especially you. He may not be doing very well-"

"Then, why aren't you helping him?" she asked, her quirky voice picking up a serious and concerned tone.

Superman didn't answer her question, only stared at her before walking away. She knew that it was probably Superman's language for "Hurry up and go see him now before somebody catches you."

At least, she hoped that's what it was. Either way, she proceeded to walk up to Brainy's door. As she was about to knock, she heard voices inside. By now, she didn't really care about eavesdropping anymore, she just wanted to talk to Brainy as soon as possible. As the voices kept talking on the other side, she found herself pacing back and forth, staring at the floor, trying to figure out what to say even when she was able to talk to him.

When the talking was replaced by other sounds she didn't quite recognize through the metal, she began to become a little anxious, wondering how long it would take her feet to wear a hole into the floor of the ship that looked distinctly like a trench.

As soon as she heard the door open, she looked up at her friend just long enough to catch a strange expression on his face before she felt an enormous pressure on her skull that shoved her backwards until the other side of her head crashed against the window. She couldn't move, she couldn't do anything, and it was barely a second before she blacked out.

--

The visor of the small ship rose, revealing Superman ready and waiting as Brainiac 5 prepared to steal the small ship for his own use.

"Hello Superman, here to wish me goodbye?" sneered Brainiac's double-voice.

"You know that I cannot let you go." Superman stared condescendingly into his former-friend's eyes.

"And YOU know that I cannot let you stop me." the android bit back. He shifted the cruiser's lever and the small ship powered up and began to move forward. Superman grasped the ship, trying to stop it in its tracks, hoping there was some remnant of his friend still inside that demented mind, "You have to fight the darkness, Brainy! This is not who you are!"

"The Brainiac you knew no longer exists. He was a mask. A lie. I am the truth." the double-voice insisted as the blond quickly transformed into his larger battle mode and crashed through the windshield. In the blink of an eye, Brainiac's left arm was ripped from its circuits, followed by his legs and his other arm. Superman knew he had to fulfill his promise. He still hoped that somehow, someway, there would be a breakthrough, and the old Brainiac 5 would come back.

"Forgive me, old friend." he sighed, preparing for the final blow.

"NO! STOP! Don't do it, Clark, please don't do it. I need help! I can't stop what's happening to me. I don't want to be like this. Please help me..." Brainiac's double voice disappeared as quickly as it had come. He transformed back into his humanoid state, his eyes shameful, but pleading for help.

"Brainy?"

A hideously evil smirk spread across Brainiac's face as he opened the chest cavity where he stored none other than the dreaded Kryptonite. Superman cringed and fell back as Brainiac rose, still smirking. "Stupid Kryptonian. How foolish was I to have ever admired you. I suppose in you I thought I saw the strength of humanity," as he said this, his body began to reform to a similar design of the original Brainiac, his arms and legs once again as good as new, "but now I understand that humanity is flawed. Even you, its finest specimen, are riddled with weakness. The king of weaklings, that is what you are, and every king deserves a crown. Consider it a token of our friendship."

Out of the chest cavity, Brainiac took a circular ring made of Kryptonite and placed it on Superman's head. Shots of striking pain flew through Superman's body. Kryptonite poison seeped into his veins and caused his blood to boil green. Everything was rushing through his mind all at once. The moment he first met the Legion at the fair so long ago, the moment they first brought him back to the future to save it from the hands of evil. When Timber Wolf rejected his father and joined the Legion, when Zyx had unexpectedly arrived on Earth, performing chaos and challenging Superman to a duel, when Brainy when through his Reconfiguration and both Superman and Timber Wolf had to take his head to the planet of Zuun for the one element that could keep the little android from going offline permanently, and even when he met his clone from the future. All of his memories sped through his mind all at once until it all went black.

"Do not worry. Soon the agony shall pass, as it shall pass in the entire universe. Once my work is complete, there will be no more pain, no more chaos, only a perfect order imposed by me." Brainiac announced to no one in particular before boarding his escape ship and departing.

Cosmic Boy and Kell-El quickly came out to assist their comrade. Cosmic Boy took hold of him and glanced at his clone, "Careful, Kell, it's Kryptonite."

Kell-El shrugged, taking the ring from Superman's head and crushing it in his hands, "It's okay, I'm immune to the stuff."

With that, they carried Superman back to the ship as fast as they possibly could to get him to Sick Bay.

--

"Our instruments have him headed for Imperiex's cruiser." Timber Wolf informed as Cosmic Boy and Kell-El walked into the main room with the others. Suddenly, a video message formed on the screen with Imperiex's face all over it. The evil dictator was sitting on a chair that looked reminiscent of a throne while none other than Brainiac stood like a soldier to the left side. Kell-El's eyes narrowed at his enemy's face.

"Greetings, Legion. My alliance is now complete. A new world order will soon be upon you. This is the moment I have waited for since I stepped into this primitive time period. The moment when I crush the entire universe beneath my foot. The carnage I am about to unleash will have a ripple effect, changing not just this era, but all eras the-Aahhh!"

A gasp was heard throughout all the Legion members in the room as they watched Brainiac spear straight through Imperiex. With weakened breath, Imperiex ordered, "Validus, destroy him."

The hulking Validus came running towards Brainiac, who simply shot him with a beam that disintegrated him.

"His matter was transformed into energy and turned into digital information. A state that I can administer complete control over. Anyone or anything that stands in my way will be similarly digitized." Brainiac gave a warning, turning only his head so all around could see that he was serious, and they all put down their weapons.

With that, Imperiex sliced Brainiac's spear from himself and dropped to the ground. He withdrew his blades from their sheaths on his back and rushed at the android, who effortlessly caught the blades in his hands.

"And for you. As grateful as I am for your contribution to my...awakening, you have now fulfilled your purpose. You are no longer necessary." Brainiac explained, his voice carrying the same monotone manner as his ancestor.

"Then what? You digitize me?" Imperiex growled.

"No. You? You I will simply...delete." Brainiac explained as he speared Imperiex three more times, then it was silent.

Brainiac turned to look at the screen and the legionnaires watching it and spoke, "Imperiex was a bane to the universe. He sought to bring chaos. I will to bring order. Trying to stop me would be...ill-advised."

With that, the message was turned off.

Kell-El seethed with anger. He had burned all this time and energy on having his revenge on the dreaded Imperiex, and now Imperiex was gone, just like that as if he was never really a threat at all. Kell-El growled, his face wrenching from shock to anger, "No...NO! Imperiex was mine! He was supposed to be mine!"

--

Brainiac had turned the ship that Imperiex had been using into something that fit his own purposes. A ship shaped like a giant Coluan head. Brainiac slid into his seat and manned the controls with ease, "It is time to de-clutter this chaotic human universe. Chart a course for the planet Colu. I am going home."

--

Chameleon Boy stared anxiously at the glass, looking in on Superman in Sick Bay. He wanted to know that everything was all right. He wanted to know that everything would be back to normal in no time. He wanted to hear good news.

Lightning Lad, on the other hand, could only shake his head. He didn't want to go out there. Here he was, in the closed off aisle of Sick Bay, and he couldn't get the long, droning beep out of his head. How could he go out there and break the news to everyone? Why couldn't everything go back to the way it was? Everything just seemed to be getting worse.

"Lightning Lad?"

The sound of his name jolted him from his thoughts, when he turned to see who it was, he breathed a sigh of relief, "Saturn Girl..."

When she fell into her place beside him, he began to speak, "I just don't know what to do...how do I tell them? How can I tell anyone something like this?"

She gently placed a delicate hand on his shoulder, but she didn't say anything. There was nothing to say. Nothing to say that could cheer anyone up that was believable at all. Everything wouldn't be all right. It would never be the way it was ever again. There was nothing they could do about it.

She didn't really know what to do either, but she took hold of her comrade's bionic arm and leaned her head on his metal shoulder. It wasn't much, but maybe it would help just a little. Just to remind him that she was right here with him.

He turned his head and shifted his cyan eyes down to look at her, "That can't be very comfortable."

She didn't say anything, only closed her eyes. However, her eyes shot open when she felt a warm, un-gloved hand reaching over to touch the hand she had on his other arm. He had taken his glove off with his mouth because she had his other arm, so naturally, the glove was still locked between his teeth.

He interlocked his rough, calloused fingers with her thin, delicate ones and turned to face her. She used her free hand to take the glove from his mouth and drop it on the floor. She looked at their intertwined hands once more, then back up at him. Using her free hand, she brushed a few strands of his wild fiery hair out of his eyes and tried to smile, "You have to, Lightning Lad...but if you want, I'll go with you."

Lightning Lad gave a slight nod and headed towards the door, slowly letting go of her hand and bending down to pick up his glove and put it back on. With that, both exited the Sick Bay, Saturn Girl following behind Garth, who tried hard not to look at anyone as they came out. However, Chameleon Boy was too anxious to keep his mouth shut, understandable, Garth would have done the same thing if it were him, but he didn't like being on the other end so much.

"What happened? How is he? What's going on?" Cam asked, getting even more nervous at the growing silence between his questions.

Lightning Lad gave a sigh and looked at his young friend, finally answering slowly and quietly, "We couldn't save him. He's gone, Cam, Superman's gone."

**Tell me what you think, bla bla bla, most likely there are probably some error of some kind or another because I'm falling asleep sitting here, so do point them out if you see them! Next chapter is MY version of what I think should happen in the final episode.**

**Reviewer Shout-Outs: I do these for almost all my chapter fics, so ha! Get used to it! I'm kidding I'm kidding. Anywho, these are my responses to people's reviews and such and such...**

**dOMITUPSYK**: Very true, location does have a great deal to do with time, etc..apparently once again my brain died and I didn't think about it...Man, I'm getting myself all confused. Violet's eyes ARE violet! I think I got mixed up with the green outfit and the green flower...it was the flower, I tell you! Personally I like to spell Chameleon Boy's name as Cam, because when I spell it Cham, it makes me want to pronounce it with a CH sound, so yeah, some kind of personal defect or pet peeve or somethin...anywho, thank you so much for the 'awesomeness' and such and such! Do keep reading...hahaa, next is the finale..hehheee, Tootles and God Bless ya!

**SagaMoon**: Why thank you so much for the review and for the 'Cool'ness..hehe, and the smiley face. I like smiley faces. Oki, anywho, please do keep reading, the next chapter's the finale! Whoot! Tootles and God bless ya!


	3. Dark Victory Part 2

**All righty now...I was almost half-finished when Legion of Superheroes came on on Saturday. Unfortunately, I watched it, and it took me two weeks to convince myself to finish the fan-fiction. Talk about discouraging...that finale made my idea for this chapter look like something out of Barney and Friends or something...Oh me goodness, and the part I wrote before I saw it, Superman just TOTALLY stole one of the lines I used! I wonder if you guys can figure out which was the one he stole...among all the ones I stole after that. **

**I understand that this final chapter is incredibly long, probably hard on the eyes, and undoubtedly riddled with stupidity and cheesiness. However, I, the Cheeseball, am notorious for my cheesiness and, after the amount of stress I have encountered, my brain has been transfigured to translucent green slime. Hence, the quite preposterous and unoriginal ending to this extremely strange fan-fiction.**

"One more time, Shrinking Violet, and I'm confining you to your quarters permanently until Brainiac is defeated."

This sounded oddly familiar. Here she was again, trying to convince Cosmic Boy to let her go outside the ship. This time, though, it was for Brainy, not her. She couldn't sit around and do nothing.

"Cos, you act like this is just another bad guy than needs to be terminated. This is our FRIEND. He's in pain and he needs our help!" she pleaded.

"Brainiac 5 no longer exists, Shrinking Violet. The Brainiac we knew is gone, and there's no way to bring him back, just like there's no way to bring back Superman." Cosmic Boy barked.

Violet stopped, thinking over his words. Wait. That couldn't mean..."What happened to Superman?"

Timber Wolf folded his arms across his chest and sighed, his eyes closed, "Superman's gone, Violet." he spoke softly.

That was impossible! There was no way she could make herself believe that Superman was no longer with them, and that it was all Brainy's fault. Brainy had always looked up to Superman, like a big brother. Now Superman once again seemed like a legend to the Legion, and they were about to face the most difficult battle of their lives. Violet's battle, however, was a battle of her heart. There was no way she was going to let this happen.

Violet turned and flew out of the room and down the hall to her quarters, trying to ignore the liquid welling up in her eyes. After the door had closed behind her, she could hear Cosmic Boy's obnoxious footsteps coming towards the door. As the footsteps stopped, she could hear his voice activating her room's lock-down system. They intended to keep her there, but she wasn't going to let that happen. If a Coluan with a twelfth-level intelligence had underestimated her before, then there was no doubt that Cosmic Boy would underestimate her as well.

For some reason it was as if they didn't realize who she was. The small air vent above her bed would certainly be the best way out, but it was too expected. Even Cosmic Boy would expect that. He had probably sealed the passages anyway, not to mention that if she was caught, Cosmic Boy could easily crush the metal around her and kill her instantly.

She had to think of something much more unexpected. The bathroom! All the water pipes leading from the sinks and drains would lead to a tank at the bottom of the ship where it was stored and safely converted to something that would be able to go into space with no harmful properties, which would then be leaked out of the ship and into space as space junk.

All she needed to do was follow the pipes until it led her outside the ship. Of course, if she wore her Legion belt and ring, they could easily track her. It didn't take her long to discard the belt and shove it inside the air vent before shrinking small enough to fit in between the cracks in the floor next to the pipe. However, the ring, even if they could track her with it, was her only use of flight.

It was, however, difficult to fly in such a confined place that would turn and shift unexpectedly in every direction. But she did it anyway. It would be too slow to walk on the pipe itself, then she would be too late.

Either way, she had to reach Brainiac 5 before the rest of the Legion found him. It was as if the drive to bring him back home safely and in his right mind was a crazy illusion. Well, she must be crazy then. There was some way to bring him back, there just had to be, and she was going to be the one to find it. Oh man, she really should have used the bathroom before she went clambering down its pipes on her crazy mission to rescue Brainiac 5. If she were using Cosmic Boy's brain, this mission would probably be called something to the extent of Mission Retrieval. Lightning Lad would probably just call it Mission Bring-Back-Sane-Brainy-Without-Getting-Your-Butt-Kicked. Violet decided she would just hold off on the name for now.

Every now and then her head still pounded. She had woken up sprawled over the floor outside Brainy's doorstep, which was now without a door. That huge headache had echoed in her ear like a time bomb. With each throb, it would get closer to the time when her head would explode.

She knew that Brainy was in there somewhere, she just had to find him. And that was precisely what she was going to do.

When she reached what she perceived to be the tank, she followed it to its other end, a translucent tube which led to the outside of the ship. Part of her thought that this was just too easy. The other part was too preoccupied with finding Brainy to care. She reached the end of the tube and studied the small space between the tube and the hull of the ship. It looked big enough to fit through. Wait, what was she thinking? There was a reason she was called Shrinking Violet. She shrunk once more to be comfortable as she squeezed through the space and flew into the black void outside.

As soon as she had finished commending herself for an escape well done, she remembered. She had no idea where she was going! Only one thing came to mind and that was to peek into the window of the ship to steal a glance at the map and perhaps get some information as to where her friend was headed.

With that she flew up to the window, still shrunken, and peeked over the windowsill just enough to see the map and the controls. She studied them for a few moments, discerning the data on the trackers and scanners that she could see to figure out where he was headed.

All at once she had to restrain a gasp. He was headed straight back to his people. The very ones couldn't stand. The ones he was afraid of returning to. She had a bad feeling that he either came to make up with them, or to destroy them. She had an even worse feeling that it was probably the latter.

Letting go of the ship, she glanced around all sides to find landmarks she recognized that would lead her in the direction of Colu. It took a few minutes of pointing and counting on her fingers before she could calculate exactly which direction was which and which direction she should go. Without any hesitation, she flew off in said direction. She had to be fast, or she wouldn't get there in time. All she hoped is that she wouldn't be too late.

--

Colu was easy to distinguish. At least at this point. There was a bright familiar digitizing beam beginning to spread over the entire surface, and the legionnaires were already there and fighting the army of controlled Coluans that Brainiac 5 himself had reprogrammed. She was too late. She knew she shouldn't have taken that last turn at the White Dwarf.

Either way, while the Legion was here, there wasn't much she could do. All she could do was watch.

Brainiac had assembled all his fellow reprogrammed Coluans and transformed them into a gargantuan robot body, to which Brainiac connected the Coluan head ship. It was an understatement to say that the Legion was losing badly. They apparently had tapped into Computo to find out a way to keep themselves and the ship from being digitized. Now Brainiac had used his power to make their defenses dysfunctional. That stupid ancestor programming had opened Brainy up to so much power that there was no way the Legion could stop him, especially without Superman. It felt like it was all up to her. She was the Secret Weapon.

What she would actually do as the Secret Weapon, she wasn't sure, but she did know that there had to be something she could do, especially since Brainy was her friend. She had to do something, even though everything did look pretty hopeless at the moment.

Right now all she could do was watch as a couple of her fellow legionnaires were digitized. All at once, Colossal Boy, Dream Girl, Star Boy, they all disappeared in a shower of shiny bits of data.

Violet had to do something, she couldn't sit back and watch any longer. Her heart thumped. She had no idea what she was going to do, what she was going to say, but she had to do something.

With her heart pumping in her ears and the blood throbbing through her head, she flew into Brainiac's plain sight, "Brainy!"

She hypothesized that she had called his name to draw his attention away from the destruction he was causing. At the same time, she hoped that her fellow legionnaires wouldn't take advantage of the situation and try to destroy him. However, as she looked around, they seemed more surprised to see her than Brainiac did, although Brainiac, at this point, was probably a bad example of looking surprised.

He looked at her with a cold, dead glare that sent shivers up her spine and made the hair at the nape of her neck stand on end. She wanted to shrink so badly when he floated towards her like a death sentence. He was taller than she was to begin with, now he looked monstrous, although the colossal robot body reminded her more of the word "behemoth".

Violet took a deep breath and tried her best to look him in the eye, "Brainy...why...why are you doing this? You have to snap out of it! We gotta get going. We gotta go home."

"A universe of order is my home." he coldly replied.

Even as his arm rose to aim directly at her heart, she didn't flinch. Now she really wanted her Brainy back. Her expression became serious as she crossed her arms over her chest, "Go ahead and shoot. But then you'll never know the secret."

Inside the giant robot, his expression remained stoic, but his arm began to lower. He didn't give any explanation, but he took her by surprise when his massive grabbed her by the waist, causing her to inhale sharply as she felt her entire torso being crushed.

As she looked back at the rest of the Legion, they were retreating back to the ship without even so much as a glance as Brainiac took her away.

--

"Brainy? I uh...I gotta pee."

The android didn't answer. Violet squirmed.

"Seriously, Brainy, I really gotta use the bathroom."

Brainiac turned to glare at her.

"I'm telling you, Brainy, I'm not up to anything! I'm just Vi...you remember...don't you?" Violet put her hands up to the glass, her voice echoing inside her glass prison. Man, she really had to go to the bathroom.

"I don't remember anything about any 'Vi', and besides, once the universe is in order, you will no longer exist." he said simply without turning around to look at her.

Here she was in his head-shaped ship trapped inside a glass sphere that was completely impossible for someone like her to get out of. He was sitting at the ship's controls, making no moves to answer any of her questions except for the whole "conquer the universe and create a society of perfect order" fiddle-faddle she'd been listening to for the past what seemed like hours. Apparently he was either lying or completely oblivious to the fact that he did remember her, or he wouldn't have put her in a 'cage' that was shrink-proof.

No matter how many times she tried, it felt like she couldn't get through to him. Then he would leave the ship for a while and close the eyelid-like visor over the eye-shaped windshields so she wouldn't have any idea what was going on.

He would always be completely unfazed when he returned and he would move on to the next target.

Sinking to her knees, right now Violet really did feel helpless. But she still wouldn't give up.

"Brainy, do you remember the time we went on that mission to dismantle Imperiex's cannon? I remember how you were so skeptical about my powers at first. You didn't really seem to think that I should even be in the Legion, then I helped you connect Lightning Lad's nerves to his new bionic arm. I saved you a lot of time...You didn't think I could understand what you were doing."

"You were merely a tool for my advancement. Nothing more."

The comment shook her heart, even if he WAS controlled by his evil ancestor. After a few moments, she continued, her voice cracking, "I remember the time we had to travel to Kandor inside that bottle. You were so afraid to tell them about your connection to the original Brainiac. You were afraid of what they'd do. You hated being related to that creep and you were afraid that you were like him."

"Before my awakening, the Brainiac 5 you knew was weak and flawed."

"NO!" her voice rose defensively, as she stood to her feet, "The Brainiac 5 I knew had a heart that no one else I know could ever compare with! He longed to be human so he could feel the things they feel. The thing he didn't realize was that he already had more heart than any human I've ever met! His feelings were deep and he wanted people to know him for who he was, but he didn't want to feel weak in anyone's eyes. He struggled against your influence until he couldn't take the burden alone anymore!"

"The weakling you knew has been deleted." he stated.

"You're wrong!" she banged her fists against the glass, "Brainy, I know you're still in there! Keep fighting this big fat jerk! I also want you to know that, whatever happens, I'll always-"

A sudden jolt of the ship sent her falling back to her seat with a thud. From what she could tell, the ship had stopped. Horrified, Violet glanced at the windshield, finally seeing all the planets and life that were being digitized. In front of them were the rest of the remaining members of the Legion.

They all still wore the protective devices and looked ready for a final battle with Brainiac. Suddenly Violet felt herself sinking, along with the glass sphere she was imprisoned in. Everything around her went dark as she was pulled through a widening mechanic hole in the floor that probably led to all the different parts of Brainiac's giant robot body.

Occasionally she saw movement, shifting shadows and shimmering eyes in the darkness, dim lights coursing through wires, and Coluan arms reaching for her glass vessel to tear her apart. Wrapping her arms around herself, she sat down and hugged her knees close, hoping that this whole mess would end as quickly as possible. Once her violet eyes had finally adjusted to the darkness, a sudden light blinded her again. She put her hand in front of her face to shield her eyes from the light until her eyes adjusted once again.

She saw the Legion. They were buzzing around, firing at the robot, though it did seem to work for a while, every time a part of the body was injured, more Coluan drones rushed over to make it whole once again. As she watched the Legion battle, apparently the Legion saw her.

Lightning Lad shouted, "Stop! Don't fire! He has Shrinking Violet!"

Garth pointed to the impenetrable glass sphere lodged in the center of the robot's chest. For a few minutes no one had any idea of what to do. Brainiac, of course, used this to his advantage. With one blast he digitized five of her teammates.

Again and again, Violet pounded against the glass, using her fists, her shoulder, and even her whole body to try to shatter her prison, though the only thing she got was a possibly dislocated right shoulder. Once again all she could do was watch.

She felt a thrashing pain in her chest when she saw Brainiac hacking into Lightning's Lad's Cybernetic 4000, the bionic arm that she and Brainy had done...together. Brainiac used it to fire into Cosmic Boy and Sun Boy, who were blown backwards and unconscious by the impact. Garth had no control over his arm, and it was clear that he was distressed, but his distress turned into panic as his arm began malfunctioning. It took only a few seconds, though it seemed like an eternity, for his entire arm to explode in a fiery blast. It was no time at all before they too ended up in a shower of data.

She closed her eyes and clutched her stomach with her left hand, her right arm dangling lifelessly at her side. Her entire body was slammed against the other side of the sphere when a sudden explosion plummeted through the glass.

"Violet, hurry!" Chameleon Boy shouted above the noise of the battle. He had crashed through the the dome in one of his giant alien forms to release her. He held out his hand to help her up. She took his hand with her left and flew out of the robot's chest cavity. Cam rubbed his head painfully, where the glass collided with his skull, "Now that's what I call using your head."

Violet gave her classic chortle, but it was cut short. In a flash, before he could let out another word, Cam disappeared into streams of data. Shaken, Violet stared at her hand, he had just been holding it, and now all that was there was nothing. Cam had disappeared from right in front of her and she could do nothing to stop it. As she looked around, they all disappeared as flecks of computer data. There was no one left. Everyone was gone. She was alone.

She gasped as one enormous robot hand clutched itself tightly around her body. She heard Brainiac's voice menacingly coming closer, "I do not understand why you are still alive, but I know there is something very significant you know that I require for my endeavor. You have only seconds to answer, so do it quickly or be digitized like all the others."

Brainiac now floated towards her, his hands behind his back, waiting for her answer. Her throat lodged up. She had no idea what he was talking about.

Violet wrenched her face in pain as her toes began to dissolve. It was like a burning sensation that ripped muscle from bone, skin from muscle, and blood from vessels. Her lungs gave out, unable to grasp any air, as if they began to collapse. It hurt too much to scream.

The burning slowly enveloped her feet and rose to her ankles. She knew that her old friend was in there somewhere, she just had to wake him up. She gasped, the burn rising up her calves. She couldn't speak. Her throat felt so cracked and parched it just couldn't form any words at all. She didn't know what to do. She felt so helpless. There had to be someway to help him, somehow. The digitization crept up her thighs.

Everything began to blur. Her eyes drooped. Her arm and shoulder shot pangs of stinging pain through her. The data consumed her hips and bled into her torso. At least she didn't have to go to the bathroom anymore. As the data crawled up her chest, she grabbed his shoulder with her left arm tightly and stared into his eyes desperately, "Please, Brainy, don't do this! I want to help you!"

His stoic mechanical face was the last thing she saw before she blacked out.

--

Violet groaned and slowly opened her eyes, staring at the black ground she was laying on. When she tried to lift her arm to rub her eyes, another shot of pain rushed through her body. She slowly sat up and glanced around at her surroundings. She had no idea where she was. The floor was black made of geometric shapes, as were the walls. It looked like some twisted version of what she imagined the inside of a computer looked like. Suddenly she noticed the strangely shaped light panel coming from the ceiling and restraining something that resembled some kind of tangled stretched out spider's web. When she looked closer, she couldn't believe her own eyes.

"BRAINY!" She shouted, running as fast as she could over to where he was suspended in the middle of the room. His entire circuitry had been ripped and tangled and shredded. His emotionless broken face looked like one of a dead man. He was all a mass of wires, cables, and circuits. She felt as if her friend's insides were spilled out in front of her. Her heart clenched. It hurt to look at the tangle of stretched wires that was her best friend, "Brainy..."

She gulped, trying to keep the salty tears from falling. She sobbed once, and immediately turned around as she heard a dreadful voice, "Pathetic, isn't he?"

She wiped her eyes with her left hand and scowled at the imposing robot that now stood before her. She clenched her fist, "Brainiac 1.0..."

"Indeed. I was expecting more of a fight out of him, but in the end he was easily overwhelmed by the darkness."

She growled, "You're wrong! He's still fighting! He would never give up! Especially to you, you low-down parasite!"

Violet yelped as an electrifying pain thundered through her back.

"If you came here thinking that you, of all things, could save him, you are sadly mistaken. This is where I am at my strongest." he threatened.

She nearly doubled over, stooping to the ground and breathing heavily. She wasn't going to lose this time. Slowly she stood up. When she regained her footing, she rushed at Brainiac, her hand clenched tightly into a fist. She almost fell over when Brainiac disappeared and materialized behind her. With a growl, she ran up to him once again, and once again he disappeared.

He re-materialized again, "Why do you continue to fight a battle alone that you clearly cannot win? Why do you continue moving when there is no hope?"

She made a light groan in pain and shifted her weight to regain balance, "You big dummy. There's always hope!"

Violet sprinted towards him again, desiring no more than to get rid of this kook and get Brainy back. She felt like she was being taunted. He was purposefully draining her of her energy.

"Not when it's placed in a weakling like Brainiac 5. It's amusing. He so wanted to be a hero, yet he couldn't even save himself, or you for that matter." Brainiac mused, no doubt he would have probably laughed maniacally if he had not been a robot.

"The Brainiac you knew is gone, taken apart and reprogrammed to serve me." he continued.

Violet rolled her eyes and gave an sarcastically amused chortle, "You still don't get it, do you? Brainy will never stop fighting. You may be able to control Brainy's mind, but not even you can manipulate someone's heart. And no one, not even you, can reprogram someone's humanity!" she lunged at the robot once more.

Brainiac scoffed, "Humanity?" he effortlessly blasted her across the room until she collided with the wall. Agony wracked her body when she plummeted to the floor. Brainiac walked up to her, stooping to yank her up by the front of her uniform. He held her above the ground as she struggled against his grip, "He was a robot, foolish girl."

Her pale face twisted into a smirk, "You claim to have 12th level intelligence, but you still can't seem to understand. Brainy may not be physically human, but he has the most ginormous heart of anyone I've ever known in my entire life!"

With that, Brainiac threw her against the body of Brainiac 5, entangling her in all the wires and cables that used to be inside her friend. She turned her head to look at his fractured face. Her body couldn't take much more. Pain was pulsing through her like the very blood of her body. Her lungs burned every time she breathed. She couldn't hang on much longer. Her right shoulder was completely dislocated, she was pretty sure that at least a couple of her ribs were broken, and all the rest of the pain pretty much melded together to the point where she had no idea what was injured where.

Her eyes clouded with tears. As she looked at his face, she felt like she had failed him. She didn't know what else she could do. She whispered, clinging tightly to the tangle of cables that used to be his chest, "I'm so sorry, Brainy, I tried. Please, please come back. I can't do this without you. You're...you're the reason I'm still in the Legion, please don't leave me alone. You're the only one who really has any faith in me."

She reached her left hand up to brush her hand gently through his blond hair. With that, she closed her eyes and leaned up to press her deep violet lips against his cold, lifeless metallic ones. This was the only other thing she could think of, hoping that by some miracle, he would wake up.

She couldn't see his eyes flash dimly.

She pulled away and opened her eyes, studying his own, "Please don't leave me, I...I--Ahh!"

Once again Brainiac sent electric shocks through her back, sending her plunging to the ground.

She breathed in sharply, her voice exhausted and raspy from her sprawled position on the floor, "Brainy's a hero. He always has been."

Violet didn't see the young android's magenta eyes flash brightly. Her breath weakened, "He's...my...hero."

The android's eyes widened.

"How can one be a hero if he cannot even save you, the most pathetic damsel in distress to ever walk the flawed pathetic human world?" Brainiac stepped on Violet's stomach, putting pressure on her already aching organs and beginning to spread his virus throughout her torso.

The young robot's eyes narrowed.

As the virus began to spread, her eyes wouldn't stay open much longer. Weakly, she breathed, "Don't give up, Querl, please don't give up." her eyes closed as she slipped into unconsciousness.

The wires and cables slowly began to move. They drew back and the machinery once again became something recognizable. All the wires and cables and programming had all naturally fallen into place.

Brainiac 5 had returned.

Stretching his arms out, he regained control of his mind and his body, sending Brainiac flying across the room. He then jogged over to Violet's body and rested his hand on her stomach, clearing away the virus from her system.

She flinched and groaned painfully. The young Coluan glanced over her body sadly. Her porcelain face was smeared with blood, her dark lips cracked and parched. Her ebony hair was tangled and greased with sweat and blood. A couple of her ribs were broken, and one was completely crushed. Her right shoulder was completely dislocated. Her uniform was tattered; cuts, scrapes, and bruises adorning her arms and legs.

Brainy picked gently placed his hand beneath her head and behind her back to lift her slightly, her scrawny body cradled in his arms. He glanced over her face as she slowly opened her eyes. When her eyes conformed to the lighting, a look of confusion spread across her face, mixed with even a little melancholy, "Brainy? Am I dreaming?" she asked quietly, her usually cheerful voice rattled with exhaustion and agony.

The android shook his head, a small smile widening on his face, "No, it's me."

Her countenance changed to a look of astonishment mixed with glee, "You came back?"

Violet bent over, her body heaving spastically as she coughed. He pulled her close and brushed his fingertips over her back, trying to somehow make her feel a little better without brushing against any of her wounds.

With no warning, a blast came towards them, but Brainiac 5 effortlessly put up a shield around them. Taking one last look at her and brushing her black and violet bangs out of her face, he delicately laid her back down and stood to his feet to face his most hated enemy.

His determined scowl plainly said that he had had enough. As Brainiac 1.0 kept firing over and over, the blond-haired Coluan easily blocked each one with a shield, his voice deeply vexed, "I'm going to tell you one last time..."

Fiery replicas of Brainy's own image rose from the floor, surrounding his ancestor. With every word that Brainiac 5 said, with a flaming passion and renewed strength, the replicas plunged their fists into Brainiac 1.0's mechanical body.

"Get."

"Out."

"Of."

"My."

"HEAD!"

With that, the ancient Coluan skidded to a stop at the feet of Brainiac 5, who drove his fist through his ancestor's head, finally destroying the evil mastermind that had diseased Brainy's thoughts for weeks.

--

"Vi? You awake?"

Shrinking Violet could hear a strange and obnoxious beeping sound ringing in her ear like a rotten alarm clock. She felt as if she had been stitched up like a worn-out teddy bear. When she opened her eyes, the beaming faces greeted her with glee. She began to smile, but suddenly she realized that there was one very important face that was missing, "Where's Brainy?"

Their smiles started to fade, but no one spoke. Finally, Bouncing Boy elbowed Cosmic Boy to speak. When he only glared, Lightning Lad rolled his eyes and explained, his voice low. "Once we all came to, everything that Brainiac had digitized was being restored. We found you floating unconscious a few hundred yards away from the remains of Brainiac's ship. We've sent out three search parties. There hasn't been any sign of Brainy anywhere."

Violet began to sit up, stopping abruptly when pain shot through her chest.

"We bandaged your wounds and popped your shoulder back into socket, but it'll take at least a couple months to heal." Duo Damsel informed.

"But what about Brainy? He's out there somewhere, I know he is! He fought the darkness and he won! He's free from that evil maniac! We have to find him!" Violet insisted, glancing around for anyone's support.

A silence that seemed like forever ensued, until Cosmic Boy finally spoke up, "How do you know we weren't restored when he got obliterated?"

The remark earned Cosmic Boy a few scornful glares.

Violet's eyes found the floor. What if Brainy had been destroyed and she had just been dreaming the whole thing? What if he was really gone?

Before anyone else spoke, Timber Wolf opened the door, "Sorry to interrupt, but I think there's something you should see. All of you."

The legionnaires filed out, closing the door behind them and leaving Violet in her bed staring absently at the closed door.

Maybe it was all just a dream. Maybe the sling around her arm and the bandages on her body were just marks she had gotten from the battle with the robot, not with her friend's return. He was really gone. As soon as she had been completely digitized, her mind probably went in some state of dream until she woke up after Brainiac was gone. The whole thing was just a dream, even the part where she'd...uh...tried to wake him up. Violet couldn't stop the blood rushing to her cheeks at the thought.

The hopeful part of her wanted to believe that this was totally ridiculous. If the Legion had been digitized, then there would have been no way for Brainiac to be defeated unless Brainy himself had defeated him, which would still mean that Brainy had to be alive somewhere.

The door opened once again and Lightning Lad walked over to her, apologizing for the legionnaires that had left her there. He bent down to gently pick up Violet, his missing arm now replaced with a feeble prosthetic one. Brainy was the only one who could recreate his Cybernetic 4000, and now Brainy was gone. He carried her out the door, struggling a bit while trying not to hurt her. She couldn't feel her legs and her ribs hurt like crazy, but she did really want to see the reason why everyone had left in such a hurry.

On the monitor they all stared at what looked like a fiery comet hurling straight towards the ship.

"We just recently saw it on radar. Whatever it is, it's not like any comet I've ever seen." Timber Wolf explained, his claws tapping on a few keys on the controls to zoom in, "It looks like there's something inside it, but it doesn't look like a rock."

Cosmic Boy observed it for a moment before heading towards the door, "Come on, Legion, looks like we have a little more work to do."

The Legion flew out the door and out of the ship through the aircraft hangar. As Lightning Lad began to fly out with Shrinking Violet, Cosmic Boy stopped them, "No, Violet. You're going to stay inside the ship."

She gazed sternly on her superior, "Sorry, Cos, I won't stay behind this time."

Lightning Lad had a horrible time trying to hide his triumphant smirk as he flew past Cosmic Boy and outside the hangar. The Legion prepared for their battle, trying to prepare themselves for anything, since they still had no idea what they were up against. The blazing comet rocketed towards them, getting closer and closer until they could feel its heat.

All of a sudden it began to slow down, slowing to a stop right in the middle of the crowd of legionnaires. The fire began to die down, the silhouette of the object inside becoming more apparent. Violet couldn't tear her eyes away.

She knew that silhouette anywhere.

The light slowly dimmed as Brainiac 5's mechanical body emerged. Most seemed elated, some were flabbergasted, some were suspicious. He didn't look conscious. No one knew if he was even alive.

Violet inhaled sharply, causing her ribs to spark pain through her chest. The armor, the metal, the cables, the wires, the metal skin, all of it was breaking apart. Everything disintegrated. But something was different. Despite all the metal falling apart, there was something left, and it didn't look like metal.

Everyone's eyes travelled up from the fabric-covered feet and legs, to the Legion belt, to the green arms and toned chest, and finally, to a smooth green visage and a mop of disheveled blond hair.

Flesh.

The Legion was completely silent in astonishment and wonder. Some rubbed their eyes to make sure they weren't dreaming. Dream Girl had to pinch herself.

Violet couldn't breathe. She'd lost words, breath, thoughts, and most of all, her mind. The figure grimaced and slowly opened his eyes. Celadon green eyes.

He glanced around, completely confounded, then stared down and his hands. For a few moments all was completely quiet, until Brainy grimaced and once again lost consciousness. At a moment's notice, Timber Wolf came over and carefully transported him back inside the cruiser.

--

Sometimes those beeping noises aggravated him to no end. But this time, it seemed to resemble music. It was a constant reminder that he was home, or he was imagining that he was. He didn't know yet, he still couldn't bring himself to open his eyes.

"You haven't had any sleep in two days, go ahead and get some rest." he heard a familiar voice whisper.

"No, I can't. Not yet. I think he's waking up." the other voice replied.

The first thing he felt was the warmth of a soft hand on his arm.

"I'm serious, Violet. Get to sleep, that's an order." the familiar voice rose sternly.

The hand on his arm slowly crept down to his hand and grasped his fingers gently, "No. I can't..."

There was silence for a few minutes, then Brainy felt the warm hand squeeze his own and reluctantly slip out of his grip. A cold chill tingled through his body as the loyal companion left his presence.

Finally, he convinced his eyes to open. At first everything was a flash of bright light and a blur of color. When his eyes adjusted, he nearly fell into a state of shock.

"S-Superman? Didn't I--Weren't you--" he could barely whisper.

Superman gave a half-smile, "Well, apparently-"

"He was caught in a state of suspended animation to try to slow the kryptonite poisoning. Kell-El supplied us with a blood transfusion to stop the poisoning." Saturn Girl shortened the explanation from her place leaning against the doorway.

Brainy turned his eyes away, ashamed, "I'm sorry..." he began.

Superman's eyes hardened on him, "No, Brainy. We're just glad you're back. Now get some rest. Soon you're going to have to get used to not being an android."

With that, Superman and Saturn Girl exited the room. Brainiac 5, still a bit confused and perplexed at the new emotions and thoughts he was feeling, brought up his hands to stare at them. No metallic joints, just skin and bone and muscle. He felt so different. He couldn't explain a sudden giddy sensation as he finally realized that this was real.

He was real.

He also felt exhausted. He just couldn't keep his eyes open. He could wait to deal with all the other feelings when he woke up.

--

"Brainy?"

Shrinking Violet poked her head inside the door, searching for her friend. She took a couple steps forward and repeated, "Brainy? You're missing pie. It's that fried apple stuff that Superman's grandmother used to make..."

Holding a plate of fairly messy but tasty-looking apple pie, she slipped further into the room before finally spotting the blond standing beside the window, watching the hustle and bustle outside the tower.

"Brainy?" she hesitantly placed her good hand on his shoulder, causing him to spin around unexpectedly. Violet couldn't step back quick enough to keep the plate of apple pie from splattering all over her. She gave a snort and giggled as Brainy quickly and awkwardly apologized, "I'm uh...Sorry...I'm really sorry..."

As she laughed, he couldn't help but find himself smiling as well.

She gave him a nervous smile, "I'm...um...just gonna go clean this up."

A few seconds of silence ensued as she walked towards the door. Finally, Brainy spoke up, "Violet, wait a second."

She turned around in a split second, "Yeah?"

Brainiac 5 cleared his throat and tried to subdue the alien twisting unnerving feeling in the pit of his stomach. Violet took a few steps towards him. He turned his eyes away from her, his voice at a slightly embarrassed mumble, "Did you mean it?"

She tilted her head, "Mean what?"

He cleared his throat again and brought his green hand up to the back of his neck, "Um...what you said...and did...back there."

She took a breath, now realizing what he meant. Violet turned her eyes away from him, trying to hide a very rare blush. It wasn't long before her eyes found his green ones once again, "Brainy...I--Of course I did."

His eyes implored her own violet ones, "Everything?"

Her shoulders relaxed, "Yes, Brainy, everything. Every last bit of it."

A smile crawled across his face. The same smile she saw when he gave her a chance to prove her knowledge, the same smile she saw when he trusted her to carry out the destruction of Imperiex's monster cannon, the same smile she saw when she reassured him that he wasn't like his ancestor, and the same smile that she saw when he knew she was right.

His smile slowly fell, "I'm so sorry, Vi. How are your...um...injuries?"

She chortled and threw her good arm around his neck, her other one still in a sling, "I'm just so happy you're back, Brainy."

Brainy froze for a moment, a strange warmth spreading from his heart into the rest of his body. As he exhaled, he clumsily put his arms around her, releasing her automatically when she pulled away. She giggled uneasily, pointing to his chest, "Now you have apple pie on you."

Watching his embarrassed pout was amusing enough. She turned to jog out of his quarters, but his voice stopped her in her tracks once again.

"Vi?"

When she turned to face him again, he scratched the back of his head and stared at the floor, a slight blush becoming quite apparent on his face, "Um, what you did...back there...could you...um...would you consider...uh..."

She blushed, thinking back to the moment he was referring to, "You remember that?"

His silence and the look in his eyes served as an apparent 'yes'.

Her ivory face becoming significantly red, she shuffled slowly up to him, "You actually want me to..."

Brainy cleared his throat, "I uh...wish to know more about-"

His sentence was cut off by her lips against his own. She closed her eyes, standing on her tiptoes trying not to be embarrassed or nervous, and, frankly, failing miserably.

His mind scrambled to where he couldn't think, which was very foreign in itself. Some sort of trigger sparked through his body. He closed his eyes and grasped her arms gently. Both felt incredibly awkward. They were both scared, both awkward, both nervous, and both completely inexperienced in the field of romantic feelings.

Nevertheless, when she delicately caressed his soft flesh lips with her own, he tugged on her arms, pulling her closer. His mind was screaming at him, he could feel his heart pounding in his ears, and his blood pulsed with passion through his body. The whole thing was completely alien to him. But it wasn't bad. He kissed her awkwardly, barely understanding the mechanics at all. But that didn't really matter. He wasn't a robot anymore.

When he slowly pulled away, they were both flushed and nearly shaking. Feeling abnormally giddy and stunned at the same time, she turned around to begin walking towards the door. What she didn't expect was for a very reserved former Coluan to grasp her wrist and spin her back around, causing her to lose her balance and collide with his chest.

Clearly flustered, they both stared at each other for a while, baffled and speechless. Suddenly they both cleared their throats and pulled away. Brainiac 5 was the first to speak.

"Vi...I...thank you...for saving me."

A knowing smile appeared on her face, "I only helped, Brainy. You did the rest."

His soft, warm hand rose to touch her face. She closed her eyes. He ran his fingertips over her ivory skin before snaking his hand into her ebony hair.

As if suddenly jerked out of a dream, he recoiled and cleared his throat once again. Still remarkably stunned, she shuffled towards the room's exit, giving a nervous giggling snort as she nearly tripped over her own feet.

Brainiac 5 gave a barely recognizable chuckle, "Don't hurt yourself, Vi, you're just now starting to heal."

When she had exited the room, he rushed to the nearest bath-quarters. He suddenly had the need to splash cold water on his face, to realize that the whole thing was not a dream, of course.

--

He watched the screen of his handheld control. It was still so hard to believe everything that had happened. It was even more difficult to believe that everything could just go back to normal all of a sudden. He couldn't do that. Not after so much had happened and not after everything he had done. Shrinking Violet wouldn't understand. She understood too many things, and she always knew just what to say, but she would just forgive him automatically; she probably already did. But he had to come to terms with himself. He still couldn't believe that he had actually...

He barely heard Superman walk up behind him, "I just wanted to make sure you're doing okay. You've been hiding out in your room a lot."

Without glancing at Superman at all, he rose to his feet, "I just don't know how I can face the others after everything I did, especially Violet."

Brainy couldn't seem to lift his eyes from either the floor or his work, even as Superman tried to insist, "What you did was heroic. You battled your demons, and you won!"

After punching a few buttons on the control settings, Brainiac 5 finally turned around, his eyes still fixed on the tile floor, "Then why does it feel like I'm still fighting? I let everyone down. And...Vi...she really had faith in me. I'm not sure why. But even when I saw her a couple days ago, I could barely look her in the eye. After all those terrible things-"

Superman wrinkled his eyebrows, confused and sympathetic for his green-skinned friend who couldn't seem to understand how strong he was and how many people truly cared about him, "Brainy, she's just so tickled that you're back. We all are. After she stopped blushing and stuttering the other day, she was nearly skipping down the hall, humming and singing."

Brainy turned his eyes away, then finally met Superman's eye again, "I've decided to leave the Legion, Superman."

"At least until I can sort out all these new feelings." he added, noticing Superman's apparent shock.

A slight smile quirked on his face, "I was emotional as a robot, imagine me as a human."

The emotions. For his friends, for certain shrinkable legionnaires, for what happened, for everything. It was all changing; swirling around in his head like a storm of turmoil and confusion. The feelings he had experienced before. They were stronger now, especially the ones concerning a certain specific Legion member.

An amused, understanding smile spread across Superman's face.

Suddenly, a thought interrupted Brainy, "Please don't tell Vi...that I'm leaving, I mean."

Clark frowned, "Brainy, you know what she'll-"

The former Coluan's eyes found the floor again, "Yeah, I know. I just...don't want to see the expression on her face...But I have to do this."

Superman shrugged sadly, "If you insist, Brainy, I won't tell her. But you know that she'll find out anyway, and knowing her, it won't take too long either."

With that, Superman exited Brainiac 5's quarters.

Brainy knew that leaving would probably hurt her, but he had to get away, for a little while. It made his stomach churn to think about being gone and never coming back. He hated to think about last goodbyes. Permanence in the negative context wasn't one of his favorite things.

As he began to organize his stuff for packing, he didn't see the pair of violet eyes that peeked through the grates of the ventilation shaft.

--

With a click of a button, Kell-El opened the door to go back home. It felt almost bittersweet, a feeling he hadn't known until now. However, now that Imperiex was finally gone, he could return to his own time. It did feel a bit like losing something by leaving the Legion though. It was so strange. As he glanced over the faces of the Legion, he finally forced himself to say it.

"Thank you. For helping me restore the future, and for helping me realize I'm more than my mission."

Superman smiled, "That's the point of a team, isn't it? Working together, knowing you're never alone."

"I guess I'm more a part of the Legion than I ever realized." Kell admitted.

"Then before you go, we should make it official."

--

Both stared at the portal, just waiting to see if there was any chance whatsoever that she might come back. Now that Imperiex was gone, the future should be changed, and there would be no reason for her to still be...

However, the longer they waiting, the dimmer the outcome appeared. But they did not lose hope. She had to come back, she just had to. The other legionnaires had all gone to Kell-El's ceremony for joining the Legion. It felt like eons since they'd left.

Both had been staring at the portal so long it had begun to hurt their eyes, but no matter what, they would not abandon their post. It would be any minute now.

Any minute now.

Any minute now..

Any minute now...

The phrase kept repeating and repeating inside their minds, the feeble attempt to keep their hopes alive.

They thought they were hallucinating when they saw a shadow emerge from the depths of the portal. It came closer and closer until they realized just how real it was. They both flitted to embrace their long-lost partner. Everything had began to come back together again. Duo Damsel was once again Triplicate Girl.

--

Everything was completely packed. Somehow, though, he couldn't bring himself to leave just yet. Especially when he heard the Legion's pledge from outside. He couldn't help but walk to the window to watch for a little bit. Kell-El, in front of many fellow legionnaires, was making his membership to the Legion official. He held up his right hand and recited the universal promise to the Legion.

"To the Legion of Superheroes, I make this solemn pledge. To use my powers for good, to fight for justice, to protect the innocent, to aid my fellow legionnaires in times of peril, and to keep their secrets safe. I am Kell-El."

Brainiac 5 forced himself to turn away from the window, pick up his bags, and walk away. His heart felt torn in two, but he knew that this was something he had to figure out without the help of the Legion.

As he left the Legion's headquarters, it would take the twelfth-level intelligence a surprising amount of time to notice a very small figure huddling amongst his belongings inside his luggage.

**Oh man, I stole a huge bunch from the last show, but oh well. My main purpose was to go a little more in-depth into what the characters were feeling instead of just what you see on screen. I also completely and totally resent how much publicity Superman gets. He's ALWAYS the hero...what about the LITTLE people?(Cheesy pun intended) Therefore, this is the result. **

**Feel free to give me criticism, and if it's about my grammar or capitalization, please be specific so I can fix it right away...I'm not exactly the most observant brain of the bunch so I probably didn't catch it. I understand that this fic borderlines the show and fiction, so I will mention again...I. Do. NOT. Own. Legion of Superheroes...I merely thank them for letting me steal their characters and plot-lines for my own personal use...**

**Here's to my reviewers! Shout outs, guys!**

**dOMITUPSYK:** Booyah! Thankies munch muchness!(Yes, I did mean to say munch...'cuz it is quite an amusing word) I adore your reviews, so thank you so much! And fear not, I can be equally, if not more hyper without sugar! Mwahahaa! Yepyep, anywho, I GREATLY give you big hugs for your supports and encouragements! I have a bunch of LoSH(I like saying it, it sounds funny) fanfics in the works, so I hope to run into you again soon! Tootles and God bless ya!

**SagaMoon:** Thankies very much. I do so hope you enjoy the last chapter! Be happy, eat chips, and munch on ice cream!(Or is it the other way around?) Anywho, thank you muchness! Tootles and God bless ya!

**NewSlove:** Hehee, I deeply thank yous for your compliments, yesyes...and guess what I heard? I heard that a third season was in planning but is now not going to happen because 4KidsTV now owns the kidsWB block. We must all email and express our opinions to these 4KidsTV noodle-heads! Info courtesy of Wikipedia(In this case, I'm hoping it's reliable...)

**LadyGuardianofKeondes:** Crazy and hyper is very good, yesyes! Thank you so much for the compliments...yepyep, I adore spoilers myself, although sometimes they ruin it for me...okay, a lot of times...And I will admit that you will see Vi in a number of my future fics. To be honest, at first I couldn't stand her for getting close to Brainy like that(I had done a little research on the comics and I had started to favor Dream Girl), but Vi really grew on me a whole lot...and now I realize just how similar she and I seem to be...

**mdizzle:** Hehehe thankya! I do so hope you liketh the ending, yesyes. And I also hope that you will be on the lookout for my future fics that hopefully will be in progress very shortly...Tootles and God bless ya!

**Noa Lyn:** First of all...I love your review! You're making me blush...I thank you greatly for your watchfulness on my grammar and English, etc etc...next time, however...might I ask you to take notes so I am aware of exactly where my errors are? I'm more oblivious than...hmmm...yeah, I can't think of a good analogy...anywho, you get the point. I am quite eager to fix my stories wherever my errors are, so please do not hesitate to tell me! Thank you again for your excellent critique and I do so look forward to possible future reviews from you...teehee...Tootles and God bless!

**Mwhahahhahaa, what do you guys think about me doing an alternate fic that has a significantly different plot-line? I got a pretty radical idea while I was finishing up this one and I'm itchin' to start sketching it out, so to speak. Do inform me of what you think, yesyes. Tootles and God bless you all! I'll be prayin' for ya, everybody!**


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